Pension death benefits Individuals hoping to leave a flexible legacy to family members from their pension need to check that they have everything in place to make that happen. Trying to achieve this after they have died may be impossible if stuck in a pension scheme which doesn’t offer the new freedoms, or with an...

Update on the Rules of Intestacy Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014 simplifies the rules of intestacy in England and Wales whilst also updating some restrictive trustee powers. Where a person dies without making a Will In this situation the distribution of their estate will become subject to the statutory rules of intestacy which can...

Pension v ISA We’ve put the ‘all new’ 2015 pension and the recently modified NISA, head to head to see which will come out top in our 0 – £60k performance shoot-out and which one is the best-in-class family friendly model. Pensions and ISA compared According to HMRC 45% of savers in stocks and shares...

Death Benefit update The Freedom and Choice pension reforms first announced in Budget 2014 have greatly changed how pensions can be utilised in financial planning. Greater access flexibility means savers can now use their pensions for far more than a retirement income. In addition changes to the way death benefits are taxed opens yet more opportunities...

Reduced £10k allowance Accessing April’s new pension flexibility comes at a price – that future pension funding to money purchase schemes will be capped at £10k. It may seem a small price to pay for unrestricted access to a lifetime’s pension savings. Delve a little deeper and it becomes clear that with careful planning it...